CINEMASOPHIA

Splitsville, USA

2009-06-09T11:59:00.005-04:00

So, after a protracted discussion, I can safely say that Cinemasophia are done ("indefinite hiatus"). There's not much to say on my end rather than to apologize to anyone who felt that the band was disjointed and broken down over the past few months. Any frustration you may have experienced out there was coming from the radiant nuclear core of exasperation onstage. I'm very proud of the records we made and they'll always hold a place close to me, but the emotional distance had been mounting and I can't put myself/other people through a pantomime of something that all of us should be enjoying. Thanks to everyone who helped put out our records, went to our shows, and slogged through band membership.

Cinemasophia were: Landis, Jay, Dan, John, Elise, Miles, Travis, Brooke, Patrick

If anyone is interesting in grabbing one of the remaining copies of Fits & Cycles, go to www.littleblackcloud.com and snatch one up before they've disappeared. We've got a limited number of Dialectic and Whole Ghosts as well if anyone's interested.

-L

Top of the Pops

2009-04-09T10:30:00.004-04:00

Here at Cinemasophia World Enterprises, we love WRIR. So to say that we are happy that WRIR loves us back is something of an understatement. Number 1! Thanks for keeping it local, fam. If you are in Richmond, spin your dial thing to 97.3 FM or listen worldwide on the internets with this here stream. And call them at 804-649-9737 to request your favorite track from "Fits & Cycles" to keep the dream alive. Also, shout out to Tracy Ringfinger for cracking the Top 10 with a strong showing for her great record, "Decimal".

As always, you buy either "Fits & Cycles" or Ringfinger's "Decimal" from Little Black Cloud Records here or from your favorite online mp3 boutique. Word.

Scrapbooking

2009-04-08T11:33:00.002-04:00

Thought I'd share the band description from the MACRoCk memorial souvenir limited collector's program. I'm not really sure where this Death Cab thing comes from, but as Dan said, they get to make music for a living, so it's not so bad. People are really struggling for unusually flowery language in reviews and band descriptions these days, but I like rockets, pinatas, birthday parties, and Stephen Hawking. Anyway, all in all a pretty favorable write-up.

Fits & Cycles NOW AVAILABLE!

2009-04-07T11:36:00.006-04:00

After what has seemed like years (because it has been years), our new album, "Fits & Cycles", is now available digitally from your favorite online e-tailer or in limited edition CD-R form from Little Black Cloud Records. If'n you're vinyl-minded, watch this space for updates on the release of "F&C" on ass-kickin' double LP. But if'n you're all like, "What's a vinyl?", you should totally buy this right now. If you go the iTunes route, you can even get ringtones.

Digital:
iTunes
eMusic
Amazon
LimeWire

Limited Edition CD-R:
LBC

Weekend Update aka Landis Shat His Panel

2009-04-07T10:55:00.004-04:00

We arrived at Sound of Music on Friday at 5pm for something called "sound check," which we were previously unfamiliar with, but have come to appreciate and even love. After setting up our equipment and playing through a couple of "numbers", we all departed to Christine's house for some wonderful avocado hummus and butternut squash lasagna. Upon our return to Sound of Music, we witnessed the first live Ringfinger performance. After some technical issues, things smoothed out and the crowd seemed to have fallen under the RingFing spell by the end of the set. Then we played. We were in a good mood, and the crowd was great and relatively large (not individually, but as a whole). We didn't sell many CD-R's, but several people asked if we could e-mail them once the vinyl is finished. We certainly will do this. And I will certainly post it here.

Saturday we woke up and headed to Harrisonburg. There, Landis spoke on a panel about independent publishing. He can be seen above making a completely natural and unintentional talking face during said panel. After Dan took this photograph, he showed it to Elise, John, and Jay who attempted unsuccessfully to stifle laughter for the next 30 minutes. We then headed over to the Artful Dodger and caught a lively set from our friends the Invisible Hand, followed by Whatever Brains (who John recognized from the Jackpot in Raleigh), followed by a band that Jon Bray said sounded like 2002. The Iron City Lager was flowing and good times were had by all. Finally, we headed over to Court Square Theater, loaded in, and played a disappointingly low-energy set for a disappointingly low-energy crowd. We were appropriately and slighly harshly taken to task here by a grumpy blogger. To you, sir, we apologize and hope that you can find it in your heart to give us another chance. We loaded out, sold a couple of t-shirts, and hit the highway so as not to have to look this gentleman in the face. More photos of the happy times during the day can be found here. Like a phoenix, we will rise from the ashes of MACRoCk 2009 and set stages across this great land on fire with our gamboge Decemberists-go-garage wings.

Notes From The Underground

2009-03-30T09:15:00.006-04:00

Thank you to everyone that came out to the Philadelphia, Richmond, and Charlottesville shows this weekend. Thanks to the people that gave us a bed. Thanks to the kid at Laundromat that reminded me of the brotherhood of the keg by hanging out after getting his ~~Natural Lite~~ Keystone Light to pump the keg for me. Thanks to Bobby for cutting us a break on our tabs at The Czar. Sorry to the muscle-neck guy that I accidentally threw down a beer gauntlet in front of. Sorry to unnamed guy in other band we played with who got his pectoral grabbed by our drunken friend (actually not sorry about that). Thanks to In the Year of the Pig, Medications, St. God's Hospital, Brian Bonz, Ports of Call, Caninos, and of course Fiends (now defunct). Sorry to the waitress at Cracker Barrel for Jay's language. Fuck you to rain, gimmicks, and traffic on turnpikes.

We have two big big big "happenings" coming up this weekend. One is our Album Release Show (poster up top) which is going down Friday, April 3 at none other than Sound of Music (321 West Broad Street) in Richmond. For those just tuning in, that's where we recorded the majority of the album, and John Morand will be on hand to make us sound good, or maybe even great. Our album "Fits & Cycles" will be available on hand-numbered and limited CD-R, plus it's our first show with the marvelous Ringfinger (aka Tracy, our spiritual leader/label co-founder/#1 fan/hero). Music starts at 10pm SHARP with Tracy, then we'll commence.

Second, and I'm fucking sorry for how many words I'm using in this post, is MACRoCk 2009 in scenic Harrisonburg, VA on Saturday. It is, I believe, our first festival, and being that several of the members of Cinemasophia grew up going to MACRoCk, it kind of makes me want to start singing "Circle of Life". We play at Court Square Theatre (61 Graham Street) at 7:40pm.

Come say hello, buy a CD-R, bang your head and/or slow dance.
XO

Tour Update

2009-03-27T15:22:00.002-04:00

At a loss for words, I think this photo best sums up our experience in Philadelphia last night.

UPDATE: In truth, I really just wanted to post this image, and tried to relate it the band in some way, but Dan let me know it was bit too much of a stretch. I apologize for any confusion.

The Enemy's Friend

2009-03-27T14:58:00.004-04:00

If you don't have it already, following this link to The Orchard's Daily Rind Newsletter will hook you up with a free download of "Pet Enemies" from the quickly approaching release "Fits & Cycles". Please enjoy.

Cinemasophia Goes On Dates

2009-03-26T10:38:00.002-04:00

Mar 26 2009

10:00P

Johnny Brenda’s

Philadephia, PA

Mar 27 2009

8:00P

The Czar w/Medications and Edie Sedgwick

Richmond, VA

Mar 28 2009

10:00P

The Laundromat

Charlottesville, VA

Apr 3 2009

10:00P

Album Release Party @ Sound of Music

Richmond, VA

Apr 4 2009

6:30P

MACRoCK

Harrisonburg, VA

Apr 25 2009

9:00P

Cameo w/Screen Vinyl Image

Brooklyn, NY

May 6 2009

10:00P

Maxwell’s

Hoboken, NJ

May 10 2009

10:00P

Fontana’s

Manhattan, NY

May 22 2009

10:00P

Drunken Unicorn

Atlanta, GA

May 31 2009

10:00P

The Black Cat

Washington, DC

If you ever really loved us, you'd come see us one more time. Shows start tonight in Illadelphia. More to come as we gear up for our globe-spanning May extravaganza.

AllMusic :: BlogLove

2009-03-20T14:53:00.001-04:00

Click here to read about the first time we've ever been compared to Radial Spangle. The heyday is now.

Review #1

2009-03-16T08:54:00.001-04:00

Jay Breitling's informative and well-written Clicky Clicky Music Blog has just posted a very nice review of Fits & Cycles. Check out his site and keep watching this space for more reviews and show announcements leading up to the release of the album on April 7th, 2009. Save the date!

Little Black Cloud Records

2009-03-11T12:15:00.001-04:00

Hello all,

Wanted to share a link to the simple and elegant new site for our label, Little Black Cloud Records. Witness the dawn of a new era here:
http://www.littleblackcloudrecords.com/

Love,
Cinemasophia

Fits & Cycles doesn't come out for a month...

2009-03-09T16:32:00.001-04:00

...but by the grace of LimeWire (which still exists) you can buy it right fucking now. Get the juice!

UPDATE: Whoops! You missed it! It's gone! Guess you'll have to wait until 4/7...

Here Comes Sickness

2009-02-25T12:47:00.000-05:00

We're now two days removed from a safe return from a four day jaunt that took us from the Lower East Side down to Chapel Hill North Carolina in a flurry of driving, yelling, anonymous pant dropping, and an impromptu dance party/snow attack.

We headed out on Thursday morning at 8AM with the band (save John, who was snugly at work in NYC) and my roommate/life coach/Radical Feminist Policy adviser Kelsey and hit NY mid-afternoon just in time to grab Thai food and go record hunting before loading into the Cake Shop and being generally exhausted. We barreled through the set and spent some quality time with Dave from LBC and the members of Radical Dads. We hauled it out of there to John's place where we put on Last House On the Left and I promptly fell asleep before any of the more colorful parts.

After a full day of work... Well, Work for Jay and "work" for me, lest I get grilled later for this, we headed to The Castle in Hell and met up with Travess, who was kind enough to provide a psych/shoegaze DJ set for the night and tore things up with Radical Dads and Holy Trinity River, who also ran the place and were incredibly nice and hospitable.

The next morning we hauled as at 8AM to get to Blacksburg to play with The Caribbean and continually threatened to drop Kelsey off in Buchanan (Pronounced BUCK-cannun to those unfamiliar with the lesser known drawls of the lower parts of VA) to find her a husband that smelled like tires.

We arrived in Blacksburg to Indian food and participated in some van drinking after ann extremely uncomfortable brush with the locals at Buffalo Wild Wings. Our performance at Crossroads marked the first time Cinemasophia have played at a venue that also sold an inordinate amount of midget porn.

We ate at an IHOP the next morning and I wanted to bomb the place. Jay's fish omelette was the most disgusting piece of shit I have ever seen. We got the fuck out of there.

Chapel Hill was awesome. Every record ever was there and people were amazing and I ate mac and cheese and really, that place could redeem any horrible experience. We played our asses off, drank free Schlitz, and Jay and I managed to leave some of our clothes there BECAUSE WE WERE HAVING SO MUCH FUN. Then we piled in the van and listened to depressing music and fell asleep at around 4AM. Everyone got sick.

Landis Zombie

2009-02-24T17:58:00.001-05:00

Fits & Cycles - Official Release Date & Artwork

2009-01-09T16:37:00.007-05:00

"Fits & Cycles" - Out 4/7/09 on Little Black Cloud Records double LP/digital download! Lovely artwork by Dan Cottner, drummer extraordinaire.

Twisting Your Mind and Smashing Your Dreams...

2008-12-15T20:20:00.002-05:00

Excitement is in the air in our camp, as we've just received the first full pass of the mastered "Fits & Cycles" done by the fantastic Alan Douches of West West Side Mastering. Keep it tuned here for album art, track list, release date, etc. They sound amazing, and we can't wait til you can all hear 'em.

In Baltimore, There Were Crepes

2008-11-18T16:26:00.001-05:00

Despite the expression, Landis thought they were delicious.

Wrecking Shop

2008-11-11T13:50:00.003-05:00

Friday marked the end of our two- weeks- ish off from playing shows, and we celebrated the occasion by going all upscale and actually renting a van to drive up to NYC. Dan, Elise, Jay, Landis, and Tracy (from Little Black Cloud, as mentioned in previous posts) rocked the 15-Pass all up on I-95N, and I met them at the Cake Shop on the Lower East Side after a long hard day at work. I arrived to Dan and Jay acting all giddy-like that they had just seen Phoebe Cates downstairs, supervising her son's band. He himself was that 'batin kid from "The Squid and the Whale", so I think it's safe to say we were in the presence of movie stars. I did not see them myself, but apparently Mrs. Kevin Kline has still got it going on (in the Stacy's mom sense). The show went swimmingly and the crowd was fantastic, and we got to play with some great bands (McGregor Burns, Fredrik, & Arizona). My apartment in Bushwick turned into Camp Crashpad (except for Jay) for Friday evening, then we all woke up and had a lovely brunch at Harefield Road. We then, of course, went record shopping at Permanent Records in G'point before settling back at the house with a couple of bottles of wine and "Gummo" on DVD. Soon, we knew...it was house party time....and I'll let someone else post about that. XOXO John

Mung Dynasty

2008-10-27T16:32:00.001-04:00

Ah, and so ends another enjoyable weekend of shows. Things started off nicely on Thursday night with most of the band heading to Cous Cous to listen to Tracy (from Little Black Cloud) DJ a set of French Pop/Freakout/Psych/Etc. while downing several drinks and generally enjoying ourselves.

We headed up to The Girl Cave in DC on Friday, which ended up being a fantastic house with great hosts, vegan food and an extremely enthusiastic crowd. I bought tiny bottles of High Life (the same size as Mickey's but conspicuously more akin to Orangina in shape) and discussed my worst show experience in DC, during which the windows were smashed out of my ex-girlfriend's Oldsmobile after a Wolf Eyes show and we stayed at a hotel that had a surprise syringe in the box of tissues (anyone who knows me will note that this is especially dangerous for yours truly).

We made it home, crashed, and headed up to Lynchburg the next day, where we witnessed an absolutely amazing sunset and chowed down on pizza at Mario's, which managed to combine Salvador Dali, giant fake spiders, an empty goldfish bowl that was filled (quite loudly) during dinner by an Andy Milonakis lookalike, and had the overall decor of a place that definitely used to be a Pizza Hut. The show was packed and went over incredibly well. Speakertree was great, beer was had, records were purchased, etc. One of the most enjoyable moments of the evening came when we all awoke at roughly 4AM to see that John had rolled himself into a rug in order to keep warm, leaving only his head poking out. Luckily, all tensions were eased over an especially greasy breakfast in Charlottesville.

This week we've got a bit of a break, with only one show this weekend in Williamsburg, which should allow us plenty of time to sober up and apologize profusely for anything we did on Halloween.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN

2008-10-19T15:16:00.001-04:00

A lot has happened since I attempted a dry run with the blog back in January, when we were still knee deep in what is now the completed Fits & Cycles. Since then, we've signed with Little Black Cloud (the calming glow of Tracy's record collection is featured in the accompanying image) and begun playing a solid block of shows throughout the Fall, trying to do press and radio, getting the record mastered at West West Side, and doing what most bands do when they're functioning in a healthy manner.

Friday night was our first show in Richmond as a full band since last year's ill-fated performance at The Camel with The Lodger, and things went swimmingly despite an early end time and some equipment malfunctions. The Invisible Hand were loud and fantastic, as expected, and D Numbers filled the place with more fancy electronic equipment and keyboards than you could find anywhere but a Yes concert.

Last night at The Boot proved notable as a result of the following things: Great sound, Adam (Invisible Hand) spraying blood onto his guitar, a shockingly low dollar amount on the bar tab, and a man in a football jersey grinding with a girl next to the stage while the local band pounded out a punishing twenty minute acoustic guitar/drum jam that lapsed into the realm of the surreal after minute ten.

We're heading up to The Bridge Pai in Charlottesville where we may/may not be playing with a real live metal band. I guess it's close enough to Halloween to break out the blood capsules.

Aerobicide

2008-01-14T17:26:00.001-05:00

A little while ago I decided that it would be an interesting experiment to start a blog accessible by all six members of Cinemasophia in order to help better document the goings-on of the band in 2008. This can also serve as a clearing house for live mp3's, demos, and visual ephemera created by the band.

Right now, we're midway through album #3. We recently finished our second session with the esteemed John Morand (Sparklehorse, Breadwinner, Royal Trux, et al) at Sound of Music, and then went to New York, where we finished around 75% of the arrangements. The songs sound fantastic, ranging from psychedelic math-pop freak-outs to steely sea-shanties, drone-y acoustic numbers about murder, and much, much more. Now we just have to figure out what to do for the 12".

Landis